Austen's first Lacrosse game

Yesterday started the BUSY season for us Tallman's and I couldn't be more thrilled. Little League baseball, TKD and now LACROSSE!!

We all got to watch Austen's first Lacrosse game yesterday. I am so soo proud of him! He was really nervous before the game all day and forgot his game jersey at home. He was the smallest kid on the team and he LOVED the game! He was a great hustler and even though he was winded, he kept at it. It was awesome to watch!

It was a home game against Lamoille and Randolph was definitely outnumbered. Lamoille had at least 10 kids on the bench compared to our three. Randolph started strong and had the lead in the 2nd period but ended up out of gas and lost 9-4.

Austen got to play to attack positions and middie. He loved it!

I love this picture of Austen. Next up, Wednesday afternoon against Rutland!

Gibnut, gibnut, gibnut!

On Wednesday, we had a fabulous day. We journeyed out to the Cayo ruins in Western Belize, on the Guatemala border. More pictures to follow. We had a guide that day named Gabriel Vasquez, who also led our bird watching trip earlier in the week. Gabriel was the absolute greatest guide, we loved spending our day with him. He even showed us his childhood school and dad's home in the tiny village of Tea Kettle. Anyway, after a morning with Gabriel at the first ruin site, Gabriel took us to a small restaurant for lunch in San Ignacio. The special of the day was Gibnut, a wild game animal, referred to in books as the "Royal Rat of Belize", served to the Queen of England on her last visit.
Gabriel couldn't have been more excited about gibnut, and it was infectious --- his excitement that is. Gibnut is considered a delicacy and apparently is a rare delicacy. We couldn't help but share in his excitement and ordered gibnut too. Mine came with a lot of small bones and a big slice of fat or skin. Once I got that out of the way, the meat was actually very good. It came with an egg salad and rice and beans. Very satisfying!
Here's a baby gibnut above. It was a fun day and the best gibnut I ever had!

Back From Belize

We're back from a week in Belize. My parents gave us an amazing gift: a week vacation anywhere we wanted to go with them. We hoped that it would work out to be a totally relaxed time for all of us and that the kids would develop some fabulous memories with their grandparents! It definitely worked out that way!
We chose Belize because we thought it would be an easy trip to a beautiful wamr place, with tons of activities that we could do as an extended family, including just sitting at the beach or pool.
We were right and wrong. The trip worked out better than we could have ever imagined. But the traveling was not easy. We left our Belize home at 6:15 AM and didn't arrive home in Vermont until 1:30 AM then next morning.
The time we spent in Bellize was priceless! The land is beautiful, the water is clear and warm, the people are unbelieveably friendly. What we discovered, was a beautiful country with an amazing history, which is populated by fascinating people. We can't wait to go back! More pictures to follow.